The Spanish government has been forced to defend its decision to house around 500 recently-arrived asylum seekers in a prison, following harsh criticism by human rights groups and NGOs, who slammed it as an “unfair criminalization” of migrants. Madrid justified its actions by saying that nearly a thousand asylum seekers landed on Spanish shores by …
Read the full post →“Spanish authorities under fire for hosting migrants in prison”
Demonstrators said they were protesting in support of Mmame Mbage, a street vendor in his mid-thirties from Senegal, who arrived in Spain by boat 12 years ago. Mbage was found unconscious on a street in Lavapiés by police on patrol. They were trying to revive him when emergency workers arrived, but he died of cardiac arrest, according …
Read the full post →“Madrid migrants clash with police after death of street vendor”
Posters and graffiti have appeared in Barcelona encouraging foreign visitors to throw themselves off balconies in the latest campaign by radical protesters to drive tourists away from Spain. “Tourists go home, and please, practise balconing!” one message said, making light of the craze where people jump off hotel or apartment balconies, often injuring or killing …
Read the full post →“Barcelona protesters urge British tourists to jump off hotel balconies”
Spain’s maritime rescue service says a baby has died despite efforts by rescuers to save it after a small boat carrying migrants sunk in the Mediterranean Sea. The death came as over 500 others were rescued. The service says on October 28 that the bottom of the rubber boat gave out, tossing 56 migrants into the …
Read the full post →“Spanish rescuers recover dead baby, save 520 migrants at sea”
Eleven migrants have been found dead in a boat in the sea off southern Spain along with 33 survivors, the Spanish coastguard said Thursday. A coastguard spokeswoman told AFP that rescuers had taken the migrants, who came from sub-Saharan Africa, to the Spanish port of Almeria early Thursday. She said rescue services had been searching …
Read the full post →“Eleven migrants found dead in boat off Spain”
There were 546 reported incidents of Islamophobia in Spain in 2017, according to a report released Friday by the Citizens’ Platform Against Islamophobia (PCI). The most frequent type of incident cited were those of “defamation, slander, and libel,” in which Muslim men were accused of being “violent, sexist, chauvinists, pedophiles, backwards, intolerant, or terrorists,” while …
Open Arms say they understand that the Spanish government will allow them to disembark in Mallorca, as it is the nearest Spanish port to the embattled vessel. “Now, after 18 days of stagnation, Italy and Spain seem to have reached an agreement, identifying Mallorca as a port of disembarkation,” it said in a press release. …
Read the full post →“Spain to allow Open Arms migrants to disembark in Mallorca”
Europol, the European police agency, issued a “Strategic Report” earlier Tuesday, saying that right-wing violence is on the rise in many EU states. The confidential report, cited by German media, says that the extremist groups seek to boost their “combat skills” by recruiting military and police members. The report noted that extremist groups are getting “increasingly popular …
Read the full post →“Europe’s Extremists Try Recruiting from Police, Army: Europol”
Institutional racism is prevalent in criminal justice systems across the European Union and has created a “justice gap” in such cases, a new study has found. The research, carried out by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), has found “deeply-rooted institutional racism” affects all parts of the justice process, from the very reporting of the …
Cristina Paredero was 18 when she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. The diagnosis came as a relief to the young woman, who had been struggling for years to pinpoint the causes of her difficulties. But it was a shock to her parents, who misunderstood its meaning. From then on, they stopped …
Read the full post →“Spain debates bill to scrap forced sterilisation of disabled people”
